Author Archive: Bill Stoddard

My name is Bill Stoddard, and I like to repair clocks, document the history of Westclox and their clocks and watches, design web sites, and program in PHP. Professionally, I operate Bill's Clockworks, where I repair American antique clocks and 400 day anniversary clocks; and sell new wall, mantle, chime, cuckoo and other types of clocks, and a few antique clocks.

My other joys include being with my family, bicycle riding, singing in church choir, and vintage hi-fi and LP records.

This German chiming wall clock was made about the 1950s or 1960s. There is no maker’s name on the dial or the movement. The back of the movement is labeled: Western Germany 35 The trapezoidal case is 19 3/4 inches tall and 12 5/8 inches wide. The dial’s minute track is 6 3/4 inches. See […]

It is common to use a tapered pin to secure the hands on American antique clocks. Seth Thomas, however, originally used a straight pin with a pointed end to secure the hands on many of their clocks. Here are photos of the original pins, washers and hands to a Seth Thomas Adamantine mantel clock made […]

I repaired this modern-styled mantel clock. Seth Thomas made it and sold it under the “Plymouth” name. The movement has two numbers stamped on the back: 11 40 (November 1940) on left rear movement leg; 4506 (the model number) on strike hammer bridge. The case is 8 5/8 inches tall and 12 3/4 inches wide. […]

When this movement came in for repair it had extremely strong replacement mainsprings from Germany (the ones that uncoil to over 20″ diameter when released). I don’t like such strong springs in American clock movements, especially the Seth Thomas 89 movements, which are efficient). After routine repair (pivot polishing, bushing) and not so routine repair […]

These two “Plymouth” tambour mantel clocks made by Seth Thomas came into my shop just a couple of days apart. They are similar but have different movements. Both have lively hour and half hour strike on two chime rods. Plymouth was a name that Seth Thomas put on some clocks ca. 1930 – 1950. If […]

I recently repaired the movement of this Seth Thomas 8-day OG shelf clock. Before repair, the clock would run for several minutes and then stop. While running, it would go in and out of beat (the ticking would sometimes be even and sometimes uneven). The movement was taken apart and cleaned. The major problem was […]

Noah Pomeroy received patent number 92644 on July 13, 1869; titled “Improvement in deadbeat verge clocks”. The patent describes a way of making a cheap deadbeat verge from a strip of steel. The standard recoil American strip verge escapement has just one face on each pallet, doing both locking and impulse. Pomeroy’s verge has both […]

Here are photos of a Waltham mantel clock, probably from the 1920’s. The size is Height: 6 1/2 inches Width of base: 12 inches Depth of base: 4 inches The unusual dial has two numeral sevens! In addition to the seven in its correct location, there is a seven where the six should be! The […]

I recently overhauled this cuckoo clock. The movement was very dirty and someone had damaged the fan fly and enlarged its pivot holes to about 1/8 inch! The slideshow below shows the repair process. I had to plug the enlarged pivot hole, use the depthing tool to establish the correct center distance, and drill a […]

The code given previously for a Flickr embedded slideshow does not work in Explorer 6 or 7. Use the following code instead: <pre><iframe src=”http://www.flickr.com/slideShow/index.gne?user_id=uid&set_id=sid&text=” align=”middle” frameborder=”0″ height=”480″ scrolling=”no” width=”520″></iframe></pre> where uid is your Flickr user id number and sid is the id number of the set of photos you wish to display. Thanks to this […]

Use the following code: <pre><object type=”text/html” data=”http://www.flickr.com/slideShow/[email protected]&set_id=sid” height=”500″ width=”500″> </object></pre> where uid is your Flickr user id number and sid is the id number of the set of photos you wish to display. Using the <pre> and </pre> tags prevents WordPress from re-writing your code, as suggested in this post. Thanks to the following resources: […]

I am creating a web site for my church, Flora First Christian Church, and am using WordPress as a CMS (Content Management System). WordPress’s excellent administration interface will make it straightforward for church members to update the content on an ongoing basis. Here are some things I am doing to make the web site appear […]

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Contact Me

My clock shop is at 8 W. Columbia Street, Flora, Indiana, 46929, USA. My shop is typically open weekdays 9 - 4 and Saturday mornings, but not always. It is best to E-Mail Me me to set up an appointment if you are making a special trip to see me.